


sweet child, listen to this: when, tell me when, did you become a monster?

by GuardianMars



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Gen, Haruno Sakura Deserves Better, Haruno Sakura is So Done, Haruno Sakura-centric, Hokage Haruno Sakura, and so is the author, this is a mess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:28:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29302722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianMars/pseuds/GuardianMars
Summary: Sakura is left to her own devices once Team 7 is officially dissolved. No team, no sensei, no friends - she makes a promise to herself that she will never be weak again.A darker look at how Sakura becomes strong; because sometimes becoming strong means becoming the monster.
Comments: 11
Kudos: 143





	sweet child, listen to this: when, tell me when, did you become a monster?

**Author's Note:**

> So, uhh. I'm not really one for poetry but I came across one recently that made me think things about Sakura and idk, this basically just wrote itself.

\---

_ Sweet child, pray tell: _

_ When did you learn to carve your own heart out? _

_ Your mercy has become agony upon your blade; _

_ How did the light in your eyes fall to drought? _

_\---_

The blade slides cleanly between his ribs, pierces his heart. He looks to her in dumb surprise. 

Guileless eyes stare back and suddenly he sees; he sees where his hubris has lead to this moment, this betrayal. _Oh the irony,_ a sudden voice in his head crows, _the very thing in which you looked your nose down upon, is the very thing of your undoing._

“For Shishou,” The kunoichi murmurs softly. This young girl-child, his chosen one, his protégé, 

_ (his daughter.) _

Danzo slumps over her small frame before falling hard to his knees. The crack and throb of knees _miniscule_ compared to the pain, both literal and metaphorical, in his heart. 

Across the room, the council is just registering what has happened, what Haruno Sakura, _girl what have you done?_ , has just enacted. 

“Betrayal?” He murmurs, not quite believing. 

“No,” She responds softly, “A coup.”

Then she twists the blade and white hot pain sears through him. Vaguely, he can hear the dismayed shouts, cries of horror, terror, suddenly cut off; they are simultaneously replaced with metal singing, hacking, thuds. 

Danzo peers over, shakily. Sees a head rolling to a stop, feet away from him, face pulled in a terrified grimace. Homura. 

“Sakura,” One of his sons suddenly appears by her shoulder, mask lifted up. He looks back to her, past her. Ah, Sai.  _ Of course. _

Danzo peers up at her, sitting up only by the grace of his protégé-turned-Brutus - still connected to the sword she holds firmly in her small palm; a birthday gift.

He chuckles weakly, blood on his lips; his vision is fading fast, tunneling down to soft blurry pinks and reds. And bright, bright green. Those eyes that had stared at him so defiantly once upon a time.  


“Well done, my dear.” He wheezes out. 

And then, he is dead. 

\--

Sakura pulls the blade from Danzo; his body slumps over and falls to the floor. Blood slowly pours out from him (she ignores it for now) and surveys the room. The council is dead. Except for one. 

Sakura looks to Swan, who places a hand on the sole remaining survivor of the coup.

Koharu jumps; startles. The old woman, a samurai’s wife living _(prospering)_ in a shinobi village, looks around the room to the porcelain marks staring back at her, _red painted smiles garish in the harsh mid-morning light,_ then past them to the young girl - no, woman - staring calmly at her. 

Jade eyes take her in, and she feels the hot burn of one’s worth being measured out.  _ What will she find, _ Koharu wonders idly. 

She does not give her time to come to a conclusion. 

The old woman rises and then with the full weight of her mother’s training, glides in her blood spattered kimono over to the Godaime’s former apprentice and with stiff knees betraying her age, she kneels down. 

Before the now dead Rokudaime’s protégé, she prostrates herself - a perfectly executed  _ saikeirei  _ \- forehead resting above the floor and she says, 

“How may I serve my Lady Hokage, Haruno Sakura-sama?”

\---

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Link to the poem is [here](https://dreamophelia.tumblr.com/post/642305997967343616/sweet-child-listen-to-this-when-tell-me-when) \- enjoy!
> 
> 2\. I'm still working on GNTP; I've had to do some major rewriting for the next chapter but I haven't abandoned it! In the meantime, here is this .... Idek, man. A bit experimental, I guess? And short. Lol.
> 
> 3\. Also wrote this while listening to The VVitch soundtrack. 
> 
> 4\. Rewriting Koharu's past around a little, cause I can. And the only thing I really remembered was that she was like the only female council member. So, yeah.


End file.
